The Business & Media Institute examined "Law & Order," along with other television dramas' treatment of businessmen in 2005. BMI found that you were 21 times more likely to be kidnapped or killed by a businessman that a mobster. ...

Not every store owner, executive, banker or broker you meet in life is a criminal, yet on "Law & Order," nearly every businessperson introduced is guilty of something unethical, immoral or criminal.

Primetime television has been painting this negative view of corporate employees for years. From white collar crimes to murders, businessmen were often found guilty on TV dramas including NBC's "Law & Order" franchises.

That analysis included all three popular "Law & Order" shows (original, "Special Victims Unit" and "Criminal Intent"). On those programs, almost 50 percent of felonies (13 out of 27) - mostly murders - were committed by businessmen. ...

From plotlines involving murders of abortion doctors, to little jokes and comments stuffed into the dialogue; "Law & Order" and its franchises "Special Victims Unit" and "Criminal Intent" routinely revealed their liberal agenda. "SVU" was renewed by NBC for the 2010-2011 season, and "CI" will continue to be broadcast by USA Network.

05/02/2016

If like me you are a sf/fantasy fan sick and tired of waiting for George Martin to get off his butt and finish the ASOIAF books, the good news is that we no longer need him:

No longer tethered to faithfully recreating Martin’s novels, the show is now free to tear through major events with confidence and get on with the story it’s so carefully built up these past five seasons.

No more unnecessary side plots, excess POV characters, plodding narration. Instead, another couple of seasons of improving (we hope) TV to be capped by a satisfying (we hope) finale.

But if Game of Thrones ends with somebody playing a Journey song and a cut to black, I'm going to be seriously annoyed.

11/06/2015

A new app is about to be introduced that’s specifically designed for the folks that are tired of hearing about the daily antics of Kylie and Kendall Jenner, or the latest product being hawked by the Kardashian sisters.

British viral marketer James Shamsi announced the app, called #KardBlock, this week. In an interview with The Daily Beast, 21-year-old Shamsi said that he created the app, which filters any mention of Kim, Kanye, Kris, Kendall, Khloe, Kourtney and Kylie from the user’s news feed, because he was tired of being bombarded by Kardashian/Jenner news.

03/15/2014

Are you ready for another edition of io9's March Madness? In previous years, we've crowned the best movie, the worst movie, and the best TV show. But this year, we're going bigger. The most famous series in science fiction and fantasy will battle it out, to see which genre reigns supreme! ... As for the bracket itself, you can click on it to expand, or click here to zoom in on a really big version.

For your amusement and edification, I attach my choices for the entire tournament. To be clear, these are not the series I think will win but the ones I think should win.

Most of the choices were pretty easy. The most painful one was Terry Pratchett's Discworld series' early exit at the hands of Tolkien's/Jackson's Lord of the Rings. If Discworld had been in either the Magic and Monsters or Dystopia brackets (albeit not a good fit for the latter), it would have cruised into the Final Four.

There are some curious omissions, which are probably due to io9's preference for "orks that have proven their staying power either by developing into a huge series or by being adapted into other media." Even so, I would have opted for Heinlein's Future History series instead of Starship Troopers (I fear that decision was tainted by the execrable Paul Verhoeven film and its evil progeny). How about John Scalzi's Old Man Universe, which probably is today's hottest SF series? Or Charles Stross' wonderful Laundery Files? Or oldies but goodies like Jerry Pournelle's CoDominium series or Gordon Dickson's Dorsai books? Any of them likely would have made my Sweet Sixteen or even Elite Eight.

So to recap, this large public company appropriately appointed an independent committee to evaluate a transaction in which its controlling shareholder had a substantial personal interest. The board then declined to protect the committee through indemnification while the majority shareholder made it clear that he regarded the committee as nothing more than expensive window-dressing for a deal he would actually control. When committee members dared to condition their recommendation on a continuing evaluation of the majority shareholder’s conflict, the board effectively fired them.

There's litigation pending in Las vegas, but wouldn't you love to see what Leo Strine would do to this guy?

05/27/2013

Caught an episode of The Good Wife (4-11, ""Boom De Ya Da") last night. I guess it was an okay episode, as long as you like anti-bank agitprop and pro-trial lawyer propaganda. But it had some seriously bad legal errors:

Alicia forces the bank into settling a case by claiming that the bank is in violation of SEC rules requiring disclosure of the bank CEO's cancer. Problem? There is no such rule. There simply was no violation by the bank.

If Alicia threatened to disclose the illness, it would raise serious questions about blackmail, privacy violations, and other legal issues (maybe even HIPAA).

The mediator made rulings of law. As explained here, "The role of the mediator is to help parties reach a solution to their problem that both parties are happy to accept. The mediator remains neutral throughout the process." In contrast, "In arbitration a third party or parties consider both sides in a dispute, and make decisions that resolve the dispute." In other words, the show had a "mediator" functioning as an "arbitrator." For more on the errors committed in this plot line, go here.

Others have written about the glaring legal errors that occur with regularity on The Good Wife, most particularly in the area of legal ethics. And, indeed, those errors are always risible and often jaw-dropping. On each episode I see at least four or five actions that would get any lawyer sanctioned, if not disbarred. Those actions are usually presented as some form of "good lawyering," rather than, you know, illegal.

The Good Wife, in particular, causes me to go temporarily insane. Their portrayal of life in a “big firm” is so preposterous — the client comes in on Monday with an antitrust case against, say, all of the drug companies; on Tuesday they find the critical case on the issue, which they use, that afternoon, to confront the other side during depositions; at trial — which seems to occur the following day — the judge rules on the critical motion, and the other side gives up in despair.

It’s just so idiotic.

In sum, I don't think I'll become a regular viewer. Anti-capitalist politics and glaring legal errors by a show mainly about lawyers is just not good entertainment in my book.